


A Very Merry Christmas To Me

by EllieCarina



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/M, Modern AU, but only visible if you squint, i don't make the rules, in which rey gives herself the gift of Ben Solo for Christmas, incorporating a bit of the events from TLJ, mostly fluff and flirting, rom com style, sex god ben solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 18:08:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13105698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieCarina/pseuds/EllieCarina
Summary: In which Rey and Ben are stuck at an airport together on Christmas and Rey gives herself the gift of Ben Solo.Part of the Secret Santa Fic-exchange. For Reylorobyn2011. Merry, merry Christmas and happy holidays to you!!!





	A Very Merry Christmas To Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ReyloRobyn2011](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReyloRobyn2011/gifts).



If Rey was at all cynical, the incessant Christmas music blaring in the hotel lobby in combination with the cheesily over-decorated plastic trees cluttering the space, would be enough to make her throw up in her mouth. But seeing as she isn’t, she is perfectly fine with all the tackiness and enjoys every last corny ornament that catches her reflection as she walks by. She had not been too keen on not coming back from her business trip until Christmas Eve, because this is the first year in her life she had actually made plans for celebrations—but it couldn’t be helped. And now, stepping into the brisk Canadian winter air after checking out of her hotel, she thinks it isn’t so bad after all. It’s snowing. Also not the watery, flimsy stuff she is used to from New York, which is more annoying than anything else. No, this is real thick, fluffy snow that won’t melt for a long time as it lands on her gloved hand.

 

Glad for the multiple layers, scarf and woollen hat she’s wearing, she gets in line at the cab lane and waits. And waits and waits until the cold does start to bite at her and the snow loses a bit of its romantic appeal. When the time comes that it’s her turn, she can hardly feel her toes, even through her winter boots, it's so cold that fora while, it's all she can think about. So the tall, dark-clad stranger who rushes past her takes her completely off guard. She stumbles backwards, watching the man shamelessly snagging her cab right in front of her. Disregarding her luggage for the moment, Rey lunges forward toward the car door the man has just pulled shut after him and rips it back open. There is no way she’ll let him get away with this. It’s _Christmas_ for God’s sake, who does he think he is?

 

“Excuse you, this is my cab!” She hollers in his face. The man doesn’t even look surprised and seems instead altogether annoyingly unfazed at her fury. Not so much as an eyebrow raises in his angular, sharp face. He is young but not _too young_ , maybe about eight years older than her. And he obviously knows he’s an asshole and likes it.

 

“I’ll call you back,” he says into the phone he holds in his right hand, thumbs it out and looks at her. “Sorry, you were saying?”

Rey feels her features contort into a befuddled double-take and then immediately change into a snarl at his gall.

“I was saying,” she fumes, leaning in closer, “that this is my cab. I’ve waited here for twenty minutes!”

“And I called a car from the lobby and waited _there_ like a civilised person,” he shrugs. “Not my fault you don’t know how to use a phone. This is my taxi.”

“No, it’s not,” Rey says adamantly. “This is the cab lane.”

“Sir, who’s this taxi for?” The man sits up, keeping his eyes locked on hers and holds a twenty out for the cab driver who takes it.

“You, sir,” he says and turns his attention back on the radio as it changes from ‘Last Christmas’ to ‘Rocking Around The Christmas Tree’.

“You pompous douchebag,” Rey exclaims and the man just smirks.

“Where do you need to go anyway?” He asks.

“The airport.” Rey snaps because she is too surprised by him keeping up the conversation to throw some other choice words in his smug face.

“So do I,” he says, inclines his head and then scooches over to the other seat. “Be my guest.”

Rey hesitates. She should throw this door in his whole...business but she _has_ been waiting twenty minutes in the cold and she’s really starting to cut it close to boarding and—

“Miss, get in or get out but do something,” the driver says, “I can’t hang around here for days.”

“Fine,” Rey says and goes to get her luggage that is still gathering snow on the sidewalk.

Neither of the men help her get the darn thing into the trunk, which is hardly surprising. When she gets in the backseat, her surprise carpool partner is already back on his phone.

“Got held up,” he says and doesn’t even try to lower his voice before adding: “People in this town are obviously unable to call a taxi service.”

 

Rey shoots him a glare and turns to the window. Pompous prick.

Five minutes into the ride, a bigger problem than her grossly unlikeable neighbour presents itself; she is sweating buckets in all her layers and to make matters worse, her butt is warming up to a hundred degrees from the seat heating. It’s positively suffocating and Rey has to get out of at least one of her jackets immediately. It’s a struggle. She feels like a fish on a hook trying to maneuver out of her overcoat that sticks to every bone of hers, then struggles out of the first undercoat and then shakes out of her knitted scarf very ungracefully. She makes silly noises from the exasperation and only notices that she stinks when it’s way too late. Okay, maybe ‘stinks’ is a little over exaggerated but the air is wafting with a mix of her deodorant and cold sweat and she is instantly mortified, stealing an undignified glance at the man next to her to see if he’s scrunching up his nose.

He isn’t. But he does look at her, yet appearing more intrigued than appalled. She quickly glances off and clutches her clothes close to her body to try and keep in her smell like that.

 

She stays like this almost the whole way to the airport, not saying a word while every song on the radio wishes everyone a ‘very Merry Christmas’, asks if people even know it’s Christmas or demands the halls be decked with boughs of holly. By the time the cab pulls into the curb at the airport, ‘Fairytale of New York’ has just risen to its big crescendo and Rey is very ready to get home.

“That’s sixty dollars,” the driver says and nods at his meter.

“I got it,” the man next to her says and rummages in the leather briefcase at his feet.

“Absolutely not,” Rey insists and fishes for her wallet in her coat.

“My taxi, remember?” He says but she is faster.

“That’s forty,” she says to the driver. “Keep the change.”

 

With that she gathers her scarf which was the one thing she hadn’t contorted herself back into once they left the motorway and darts out of the back seat. Before the man is even out of the car, she has already gotten her suitcase from the boot and started for the doors.

“You’re welcome, by the way,” she hears him call after her, now standing at the curb and she can see just how tall he really is. It’s a wonder he hadn’t looked more uncomfortable in that tiny cab. Now, standing broad-shouldered and at his full size, he looks even more cocky and self-absorbed than before.

“It was _my_ cab,” she repeats herself, shooting him a fake smile she is quick to turn into an icy fuck-off-glare and then gives him the finger.  

 

“Bloody...arrogant...bastard,” Rey mutters to herself once she has cleared security and found a bathroom to freshen up in. “Who does he think he is?” If she never sees that guy again, it’ll be too soon.

 

Much later, after twenty, then forty, then one hundred and twenty minutes of delay, Rey's flight has finally been declared cancelled due to the snow storm raging outside. The man who stole Rey’s cab stands a few feet away from her (because that is just her luck). He is staring up at the annunciator panel, his face a mirror of her annoyance. He spots her, lifts an eyebrow and then strolls over to her like they’re old friends. She would act like she hadn’t seen him and walk away but her suitcase is too heavy and her clothes too unhandy to collect quickly enough from where she’s thrown them on a nearby bench, so she stays and lets it happen.

 

“Judging by your face you were headed for New York too,” he says and she’s unnerved by his calm and how he pretends he isn’t the biggest arsehole in this whole airport.

 _Judging by_ your _face, you’re an elitist prick who thinks he’s better than everybody_ , she wants to say but doesn’t.

“This sucks,” she says instead.

“Oh, did you have plans?” He asks and it sounds like a mockery.

“For Christmas? No, I usually just sit at home alone, get drunk and sulk because I hate humanity,” she says, voice dripping with sarcasm but he just shrugs.

“That’s what I usually do,” he offers easily and if she wasn't determined to hate his guts, she might have laughed at his boney-dry tone.

“Yeah, well, I had plans,” she grumbles and for the first time it hits her that she really won’t be able to make it home in time. All planes out are cancelled and the text rolling along the bottom of the screen says that before at least noon the next day, no flight will be cleared for take off. There goes her Christmas Eve dinner and the Christmas morning breakfast she had planned with Finn, his girlfriend Rose and Poe. There goes the first real Christmas she had ever looked forward to.

 

She staggers backward a few steps and then lets herself fall onto her coat on the bench and tries not to cry. The man watches her, sort of at a loss what to do with her and Rey wishes he would just go away. Instead, he sits down next to her and holds out his hand.

“I’m Ben,” he says and then pauses, retracts his hand to take his leather glove off and present her with his bare fingers. _What a strange guy._

 

“I’m Rey,” she says and shakes his hand anyway.

He nods to the board. “That keeping you from your family?”

“From my friends,” she answers. “I don’t really have a family.”

“Me neither,” he says but she hardly listens, too consumed by her own disappointment.

“This is the first time I even celebrate Christmas,” Rey sputters out and doesn’t know why she shares that with him but now that she started, she can’t stop. “They always tried to make it nice at the orphanage but it was an _orphanage_ , you know? If there is one holiday that sucks at an orphanage, it’s the fucking fest of love and family! And after, in London, I’d just go to the pub with the wine bottle Christmas tree-”

“Wine bottle Christmas tree?” The man– Ben –interjects.

“Yes, a Christmas tree made of wine bottles, if you can take one out without breaking the tree, you can drink the bottle.”

“What happens when you break the tree?” He asks her.

“Then you pay for all the bottles, plus a complete mop-up of the place. Not many people try it, but I used to get one out every year,” she replies.

Ben looks at her like she has six eyes. “I am very good at Jenga,” she shrugs. “Anyway. This year’ss the first time I was gonna have a Christmas like everybody else, with friends and a tree and a big meal and unwrapping gifts in my PJs on Christmas morning.”

 

Rey takes a deep breath and swallows the lump in her throat. Now she’ll spend the evening stuck at an airport and her morning waiting for a flight out. Merry fucking Christmas to her.

“So you’re telling me,” Ben starts, “that I’m sitting here with an orphan who is about to miss her first real Christmas and I also stole her taxi just a few hours ago?”

“So you admit you stole it?” Rey turns to look at him and is a little bit pissed off by the fact that he’s turning out to be quite charming. “Yeah, you _did_ steal an orphan’s cab the day before Christmas.”

“I’m sorry,” he says and sounds oddly sincere. “Can I make it up to you?”

“It’s fine,” she says without giving his offer the briefest thought because she doesn’t think he means it.

“I’m serious,” he enthuses. “You should have your Christmas dinner at least. Pick a place, any place, I’m buying.”

“No, I couldn’t.” Rey peeks up at him, studying his deep set, light brown eyes and full lips set in an encouraging smile.

“Come on, it’ll be fun,” he says. “We’ll make it a three course meal, one booth after the other.” He is nodding at a row of small eateries, the first one a sandwich shop, the second one an African-themed Burger place (because why the hell not?) and the last one offering Chinese food.

 

Rey really considers saying no but it’s not like she has anything better to do and this Ben-person is starting to turn out better company that she would have anticipated, so why not? “Okay, fine,” she agrees.

He smiles in triumph and looks very satisfied with himself. “So do you want to take the first course at the sandwich place or get wan tans?”

“Wan tans sound good,” Rey says and then Ben has already jumped to his feet, snagged her suitcase and pushes it forward at its handle. As he carries her stuff and she follows, she notices for the first time that he came without any of his own.

“Where’s your luggage?” She wonders.

“Locked away in the First Class lounge,” he says.

 _Of course it is_. She has a hard time not rolling her eyes. But it isn’t much for malice at this point, more for amusement.

 

The food at the Lotus Bar is good, not phenomenal but Rey guesses there’s little phenomenal food to be had at an airport anyway. The burgers at the next place, however, are magnificent and she digs into her veggie hummus-okra one like she hasn’t eaten in days. Ben eyes her with a sort of affectionate disgust and she only notices when she looks up to wipe some grease from her mouth–with the back of her hand no less.

“Who raised you?” He asks incredulously but it’s supposed to be a joke and Rey stares at him, able to pinpoint the exact moment he realises that she already told him it was _no one_. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” he says instantly.

Rey waves it off. “It’s fine. I’m a messy eater, I’ve accepted it.”

“It’s a little bit endearing,” he offers evenly and then adds: “But also a little frightening.”

 

“So, what’s your story anyway, Ben?” She asks, now making a more conscious effort to take her dinner like a normal human being. “Why are you on an airport on December twenty-four?”

“I just quit my job,” he says and Rey’s head pops up to look at him, finding his face matches his nonchalant answer. “Earlier today, actually. So now, I’m taking a vacation.”

“Wow,” she says, after stuffing two fries in her mouth at once. “That’s the Christmas spirit. Why’d you quit?”

“Because it turns out if your company is a corrupt, evil shit-show and all the people who are supposed to be working for you are human garbage, becoming CEO isn’t all that much fun,” he shrugs.

“You were CEO?” Rey is sceptical at best. How old is this guy? Thirty?

“It’s a start up,” Ben says like that explains anything. “Although I do hope they go out of business soon.”

“You think they’ll crumble without you?”

“They should,” he replies with a shadow crossing over his features that speaks of barely suppressed rage and a grudge long held onto.

“Would I have heard of these bad people?”

“Probably,” Ben says and then deliberates for a moment. “Strictly speaking, I have signed an NDA that potentially forbids me from even disclosing the company’s name. But I think I can trust you.”

He looks at her, like he is waiting for her to agree and so she nods on impulse. It seems enough for him.

“The First Order,” he says and Rey gasps. There are several things clicking into place at the same moment. She knows who he is. She has heard his name a thousand times. And the name of his former company, spoken in venomous tones more than once.

 

 _The First Order_ is a sort of payday lending firm, their business model too intricate for Rey to understand but she has heard of them before– and none of it good –that’s not the reason why she stares at him like a fish on land, though. Now that she knows, she can see the resemblance, see it in the curve of his lips, the point of his nose, the effortless grace and his dry humour.

 

“You’re Ben _Solo_ ,” she exclaims and slaps him on the arm. “You’re Leia and Han’s son!”

While Ben obviously tries to follow and make sense of how on earth she would know his parents, she remembers the few stories her former bosses had told her of their son, of the estrangement and nasty battle for emancipation. A battle that Ben won at just sixteen on the grounds of parental neglect that Leia denied were justified until the day she died. Oh. Now it also makes sense that Ben said he didn’t have family either before. He is an orphan now, just like her.

Han had died two years ago and then Leia a year later, almost to the day, right before Christmas and it had been a shock to everyone who knew her. Following this trail of thought, Rey recalls next not seeing Ben at either of his parents funerals. She sure as hell would have remembered _this_ guy.

“I’m really sorry,” Rey says still and hopes it won’t sound too much like an afterthought.

 

“Did you know them?” Ben asks finally, although the whole turn of events still looks to be a bit too much for him to process at present.

“I work at _Skywalker_ , Leia was my boss” Rey tells him. “That’s why I was here. I had meetings with the airlines about future trips.”

 

 _Skywalker Aviation_ had been founded by Leia’s brother Luke some thirty years ago and after their fleet was eventually swallowed by _Delta_ , the Skywalker company was turned into a training academy and charity for young people wanting to become pilots or aviation technicians. Rey is part of the charity branch which organises free flights for less fortunate children, grants stipends and holds summer schools all over the country. Han had been a teacher at the academy while Leia had been running the charity like a tight ship, all fervour and dedication to their cause–and had been the best boss Rey had ever worked for and so motherly to her, it nearly broke Rey’s life apart when she died.

 

“It’s a very small world,” Ben says and puts down the burger he had been holding idly in his hands for some time now.

“How come I never met you before?” She asks and means ' _Why didn’t you come home to pay your respects when they died?'._  Going by the glance he throws her, he understood perfectly.

“As I’m sure you were told, I did not have the easiest relationship with my parents,” he offers merely and seems to want to leave it at that.

But Rey is an idiot who doesn’t know when to stop. “But they were good people, both of them,” she says and surprises herself by the flare in her voice. “Everyone was devastated and their only son didn’t even show up to the funerals.”

 

By the sight of his thick lips pulling into a hard line, Rey can tell she has overstepped her boundaries and Ben leans back in his chair, glaring at her in a way that makes the blood in her veins turn to ice.

 

“Forgive me,” he starts, a dangerous cadence to his soft words and almost snarls when he goes on, “but I believe that is absolutely _none_ of your business.”

“I’m sorry,” she says immediately and casts her eyes at the food she has momentarily lost all appetite for. “I don’t know what came over me, I…you’re right. It really isn’t.”

He lets out a long breath and then she is the one fighting a startled gasp when his large hand lands on the hers, on the one she had dropped on her knee.

“It’s alright,” he says and squeezes her skin, something about the contact making the top of Rey’s ears burn. “I’m sorry. It’s kind of a sore spot.”

“I can imagine,” she breathes and dares to look up at him again to dark eyes that have calmed, the storm raging there before subsided.

 

“You know, if I’d met you at the first funeral, I would have come to the second,” he says, the humour so pitch black, so darkly flirtatious and so much like Han, Rey can’t even control the snort of laughter that escapes her.

“That’s a compliment I’m not so sure I want to receive,” Rey retorts but more at ease now, thankful that the uncomfortable tension caused by her misstep has passed.

“Well, now you did and I’m not taking it back. You’re quiet memerouble.” He tilts his head. “Just for the record, I don’t get it myself. You’re a disgusting eater and you’re hardly charming. But somehow I’m still into you.”

 

Just like that, it’s Rey’s turn to get grumpy at him. If this is his idea of making a pass at her, it’s sure as hell not gonna work like _that_.

“I feel so honoured,” Rey snarks and leans back in her seat to contemplate him scornfully.

“ _This_ ,” Ben says, “this is exactly what I mean.” He leans in closer.

It’s beyond annoying that she is kinda into him too and she badly wants not to be affected because this sort of crap come-on doesn’t deserve a favourable reaction. But damn it, if the way his eyes drop to her lips and slither back up with no small degree of want isn’t tantalising.

 

“I don’t know where you picked _this_ whole thing up,” Rey sneers, standing her ground despite her treacherous body being pulled into his gravity and she is almost proud that her voice is only a little raw. “But I’m not falling for it.”

“So you’d advise a change in strategy?” He asks her with the hint of a smirk tugging at his mouth. That delicious looking mouth. _Damn him._

“Strongly, yes,” she says and leans a little further away and while she manages to pry her eyes off of his lips, she can’t resist the impulse to tuck her hair back behind her ears. She knows herself well enough to understand this betrays her every intention of being unaffected by him and judging by the way his smirk turns into a grin, he knows it too.

 

“What _would_ you fall for?” He asks gently.

“Respect,” she replies quickly. “And to not be insulted while you’re coming on to me.”

“I apologise,” he says. “You’re table manners are of no bigger concern to me and while you’re trying very hard not to be charming, you’re actually pretty enchanting.”

By now, he is firmly in her space again and she eyes him wearily, wondering when exactly their conversation had taken this precise trajectory. Not that she doesn’t like it, per se. He’s angling hard and she doesn’t have anything better to do, after all.

So maybe she can gift herself all of what is sitting before her tonight. If she doesn’t get her Christmas with friends, maybe she’ll just get laid to make up for it. For Rey, being as helplessly impulsive as she is, it doesn’t take much more deliberation than this.

 

“So what do you wanna do about it?” She challenges him.

“What?” Every muscle falls from its place in his face, rearranging to a look of befuddlement, like he had not expected in a million years that she would actually take him up on the entendres.

“You heard me,” she says. “If you’re so into me, what are you gonna do about it?”

“A-are you sure about this?” He asks, stuttering slightly.

“Next flight out isn’t until tomorrow afternoon,” Rey shrugs. “I’m not busy. Plus you’re First Class so you can get us a free hotel room for the night, am I right?”

“I think so, yeah,” he mutters.

“Well, then it’s settled,” Rey declares. “I’ll wait here and finish my burger. You get us a room and then I’ll unwrap that present.”

Ben swallows hard but wastes no time sliding off the bar stool and walks half backward, as if in a trance, keeping his eyes on her until he is out of the restaurant. Rey chuckles a little bit. If he’s half as intense in bed as he is out of it, she’s going to have a very merry Christmas indeed.

 

When Ben gets back, Rey is already waiting in front of the annunciation board, now pulling her carry-on herself because Ben trails a ridiculously huge suitcase after him.

“Did you not want to get desert?” He asks with a glance at the sandwich place.

“Not from there,” she jokes and wiggles her eyebrows suggestively. He laughs and it’s the first full laugh she has seen and heard of him. It’s nice.

“You know we don’t have to do anything,” he says, keeping in step with her as they make their way out of the airport. “I got a two bed room. We can just…watch something on TV and go to sleep.”

“Do you want to go to sleep?” Rey quirks an eyebrow at him. She knows what she’s in the mood for and is not in the habit of questioning herself once she has made a decision but if he doesn’t want to play she sure as hell won’t force him.

“No,” he says then. “I don’t want to sleep.”

“Good,” she says.

 

The hotel Ben was booked them into is as glamorous as airport hotels come, which is to say not very. The room is nice though, kept in dark greys, blacks and rich brown wood. Like Ben had said, there are two twin beds and Rey promptly claims one and lets herself fall down on it with a thud, snaking out of her coat and scarf once she’s lying down.

“This is perfect,” she exclaims at the ceiling and then lifts her head to look at Ben, who stands awkwardly by the door. “Well, then. Let’s see what’s underneath that five hundred dollar suit.”

“Nine hundred dollars,” he says. “And fifty.”

“You’re unbelievable,” she laughs, sitting up. He is not moving. “So?”

 

“What, you’re just expecting me to strip down for you now? Where’s the romance?”

“If I like what I see I might want a taste,” she says easily. “How’s that for romance?”

“I don’t like this,” he says and walks over to her anyway, dropping his coat and suit jacket dramatically. “I feel like a piece of meat.”

“Get over here, you big idiot,” Rey snickers and strips out of her own jacket as he undoes his tie, unbuttons his shirt and throws both heedlessly on the floor. “You’re not a piece of meat.”

 

And if he was, he would be a giant one. Rey needs a second to process his wide frame, his skin hugging tight muscles that roll deliciously as he moves. Ben Solo is _shredded_ , who would have thought? For a second, her brain catches on the fact that she is going to do it with Leia’s son but as his pants come down to reveal a sizeable package, she deftly casts the thought away.

 

His briefs remain on as he steps up to the edge of the bed and Rey keeps up the eye contact as she pushes herself off from the bed and onto her knees so she sits before him.

“Fuck,” it escapes him and she chuckles. She loves having this power, loves that he twitches for her in his pants and his irises blow up into blackness while he looks down at her in awe.

She pushes her thumbs under the waist band of his black briefs and tucks them down gently. His manhood pops out from the restrictions and is right in her face, already half hard and even bigger than she had guessed.

“Do you want this?” She asks, looking up at him and his face is blazing in response.

“Hell yes, oh my God” he says breathlessly and Rey doesn’t miss a beat before touching him and he’s barely stepped out of the underwear when she takes him in her mouth with some effort.

 

“Fuck,” he says again as her tongue dances over the head of him.

She doesn’t lavish it, giving him quick pumps with her fist around his girth and sloppy licks up and down his length to get him where she wants him, which is writhing and rock hard in her grip. When he moans loudly for the third time, she eases off on him, releasing his cock from her lips with a lewd ‘pop’ and gets back up on her feet.

He stares at her wide-eyed.

“May I kiss you?” He asks and she almost has to laugh at him even questioning that she wants him to at this point but just nods instead.

 

His lips are magic, there is no other way to say it; the way they close over hers is both soft and firm and he kisses like a young God. She sighs into it, leans against him and lets her hands explore the plains and dips of his body. She is all over him if she can, which is every moment between him plucking her off for a moment to undress her. The scent of him in the air makes her mouth wet, his mix of sandalwood and detergent, it’s an earthy smell but incredibly sweet, much sweeter than she had anticipated.

Eventually the last piece of her own clothing is shed to the floor and he gently pushes her down onto the bed.

 

“Do you have something?” She asks him because by the rate they’re going it won’t be long until they need protection. He groans, unwilling to take his hands off her but then does end up leaving her to snag a condom from his suitcase. Good thing the man came prepared.

He puts it on while walking back to her which is a pretty impressive sight.

“Impatient are we?” She asks him and eases up on the bed, welcoming him.

“We have the whole night,” he shrugs. “I’ll take my time with you later.”

“Let’s see if you’re any good at this first,” she teases him and something dark and competetive flickers across his features, something dangerously enticing.

 

Less than a minute later he hovers over her, staring into her eyes as if to pin her there as he aligns himself with her and then pushes in. His intrusion comes like the height of a crescendo she didn’t know she had wanted to come so much. He goes slow first, filling her up fully and pausing there before picking up the speed steadily. While he does, he bends her to his body, moving her legs where he wants them and kisses, then licks, then bites her lips like a starved animal. It’s amazing.

“Fuck, Ben” she breathes on a moan, “you _are_ good at this.”

“Sweetheart,” he half whispers, the endearment falling easily off his lips, “I’m going to ruin you for everybody else.”

 

And he does. Relentlessly. For the rest of the night.

 

When Rey wakes up it’s daylight and her body is sore in the best of ways. Without opening her eyes, she yawns and stretches into her strained muscles and tightness between her legs. What a night she has had. If someone had told her this the day before she wouldn’t have believed it. Her nostrils flare as she smells freshly brewed coffee, mixing in with the scents of sex and all things _Ben_ still lingering in the air and she finally wakes up fully.

“Good morning, sleepyhead” he says, already dressed and standing bent over a richly stuffed room-service cart, his hands on a french press. “Milk or sugar?”

“Both please,” says Rey and sits up. “How long have you been up.”

“A while,” he answers. “Watched you sleep creepily for a while and then I ordered you an A-plus-Christmas-breakfast. Vegetarian, of course.”

“You remembered,” she says, actually a little surprised.

“ _Of course_ I did,” he sounds almost a little offended when he brings over her cup and sits down beside her. “We’ve got some time to eat but we should be ready to go in an hour or two, we can probably get on the first plane out to New York.”

Rey half wants to stay in this hotel room with him forever. But then again, the really good things never last.

 

The breakfast is rich and filling and just what she needs after the night she’s had. Ben is pleasant company, making easy conversation about meaningless but amusing things and keeps making her laugh with her mouth full. He is in adorably high spirits, all the more so once she is finally done eating and he practically jumps up in what must be anticipation.

“I got you something,” he announces and goes to the other side of the room to produce a neatly wrapped gift from a paper bag.

 

“You didn’t!” She says. “Ben, you shouldn’t have. I don’t have anything to give you.”

“You gave me plenty,” he says with a smirk and she tosses her pillow at him. “But really, it’s just a little thing. If you have to miss Christmas morning with your friends, I thought the littlest I can do is get you a gift so you can at least unwrap something.”

Rey frowns at him because it’s really too much. But she holds out her hand anyway because it _is_ Christmas and she _does_ like presents and she is also curious what he got her. And it’s so sweet, that he did this for her. It melts her heart like the snow is outside their window. His happy grin handing the present over is the cutest thing she has seen in months. He studies her every expression as she opens it.

 

It’s an oblong package a little too big to hold in one hand but not by much and once the paper is gone, it reveals a cardboard box. On it, it says ‘Christmas Pyramid’ on top of a picture of a miniature version of a said pyramid, perfect with wandering shepherds and the three kings with their gifts for baby Jesus and Rey looks up at Ben in near-shock, way more touched than she has any right to be.

“I think what makes Christmas special are mostly traditions,” he says and lightly brushes his fingers over the box, “and I thought since you don’t have any for yourself yet, maybe this can be the start of one. You could set up the pyramid every year, light the candles and have a coffee and...start Christmasing and all that.”

 

It’s so simple yet so perfect, it takes Rey’s breath away for a moment. And then she lunges forward, the box still in her hands and kisses him hotly. Eventually, it’s Ben who takes it away from her and sets it carefully on the bedside table before they commemorate the morning with a last round of love making.

 

The bliss of it all carries Rey over all the way onto the plane where Ben has pulled some strings to get her bumped up to First Class to sit next to him.

“I thought of something I can give you,” she says after the head stewardess has announced their descend to JFK. Ben tilts his head and waits for her to go on.

She pulls her card from her wallet and hands it to him.

“That’s your number,” he says, taking it gingerly, as if it might crumble to dust in his hand.

“It is,” she affirms. “If you like, you can call me after your vacation. Because I’d like to do this again sometime.”

“Yeah, me too,” Ben says and smiles and when he kisses her then, it feels a lot like the start of something.


End file.
